The Mutants Episode Six

The one where the Marshal wants to rule New Earth...

Dear oh dear oh dear... this story really does go downhill fast, doesn't it? It didn't start out all that promising, but it enjoyed a bit of a peak midway through thanks to the beautifully lit and directed location filming at Chislehurst Caves. But now we're at the end I can't help feeling that The Mutants really does deserve its reputation as one of the poorest Pertwee serials of all. It's certainly the worst I've watched so far on this marathon, although I'm aware there are horrors to come...

The Investigator (played by Peter Howell with, as per Geoffrey Palmer's Administrator, sacks more gravitas and professionalism than the majority of the cast) arrives with his tribunal and guards in an effort to get to the bottom of this debacle once and for all. Dressed in a rather Time Lord-y fashion, the Investigator listens to the reports and statements of various protagonists in an interminable summary of 'the story so far', like it's some kind of intergalactic Poirot mystery. This tribunal is dull, dull, dull, until the Doctor manages to expose the Marshal's true splenetic nature.

The Mutants Episode Five

The one where the Doctor reverses the poisoning of Solos...

While the effect of Varan tumbling into the void of space was done quite effectively (and I am glad to see the back of him), the realisation of everybody being sucked towards the hole in the wall is done very poorly. There's no attempt to show the rush of air out into the void, no corresponding sound effect, just a bunch of actors tumbling around and pretending to be slightly troubled by the vacuum of space. It's almost embarrassing to watch as they stumble upright back into the Skybase corridor and neatly close the door. For heaven's sake, Skybase should be on major alert!

The episode is almost entirely made up of people being captured, escaping, being recaptured, running, stumbling, and making ridiculous threats. It's the sort of rubbish casual viewers thought Doctor Who was like all the time, with immoderately bad acting, harshly lit space sets and ridiculous clothes. It's the type of Doctor Who that gave the show a bad name, and led to merciless spoofs by comedians like Victoria Wood, Lenny Henry and French and Saunders in the 1980s (I always think The Trial of a Time Lord Parts 1-4 is the pinnacle of this 'public-perception Who', and it's not unlike The Mutants, with its sci-fi sets, feudalistic planet surface, crazy costumes and undisciplined acting).

The Mutants Episode Four

The one where the Doctor works out that the mutants aren't mutating, just evolving...

The less time spent on the Skybase, with the Marshal and Jaeger, the better The Mutants is, in my view. While the story might be ticking along rather sedately at this mid-point, at least it looks good, and there are regularly dropped revelations and developments. At the top of episode 4 the Doctor and his gang are rescued from the encroaching gas by the silver suited man Jo saw last time, and we soon discover it isn't a horrifically mutated creature, or a Time Lord, or even the Master - in actual fact, it's Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back! Or alternatively, it's Blofeld from For Your Eyes Only!

Dome-headed John Hollis makes for a striking presence among the team, which retires to Professor Sondergaard's lead-lined quarters (when the Doctor asks Jo what lead means to her, I half expected her to answer: "Rick James"). There, they examine the ancient tablets inside the capsule and wonder what on Earth (or Solos) they mean.

The Mutants Episode Three

The one where we see the mutated Solonians...

All hail Frank Cresswell, the lighting designer for this story, for his exemplary work on location at Chislehurst Caves (and let's not forget film cameraman Fred Hamilton). He casts verdant greens and ruby reds onto the textured cave walls, creating a wonderfully otherworldly, phosphorescent atmosphere quite different to the almost colourless planet surface. He uses silhouette to great effect too, and although the firestorms outside are obviously fireworks, the effect works beautifully, casting sparks of blue, red and green onto Katy Manning's startled face, like a kid on Bonfire night. The coloured lights also make Jon Pertwee's fuzzy bouffant glow amusingly too!

I really enjoyed this episode, principally because it is almost all shot on location in Kent and looks stunning. The scene where Varan escapes from the cave mouth, heading for his village, is directed so well, as he runs towards camera, weaving between explosions as he is chased by Overlord guards (to be honest, I can't help thinking they're Federation troops from Blake's 7!). Then we see Varan standing atop a hill, a cloudy-blue spring sky behind him. It all looks stunning, thanks to Christopher Barry's expert direction. The Mutants is one of those Doctor Who stories which boasts high production values, but appalling acting.

The Mutants Episode Two

The one where Jo ventures onto the poisoned surface of Solos...

Having purposefully taken Jo hostage in the last episode and used her as a human shield, Ky wastes little time in trying to ditch her once he's transferred down to Solos. Jo, realising the importance of Ky to the Time Lord capsule, refuses to be left behind, and despite being told about the poisonous air of Solos, sticks with Ky as he returns to his people.

The location filming for the surface of Solos is so atmospheric, with waves and wisps of mist in a landscape which looks freezing and barren (and no wonder: it's a cement quarry in the depths of a British February). The way director Christopher Barry shoots through the twiggy trees and pallid shrubbery is lovely. Apparently they took sprigs of buddleia on location and sprayed them silver, and it adds a certain "damaged pastoral" feel to the landscape.

The Mutants Episode One

The one where the Time Lords employ the Doctor as an intergalactic postman...

An old, bedraggled man with long white hair and torn clothes runs breathlessly through petrified trees, clearly on the run. He clutches his chest as he pauses for breath, then heads off in a new direction as shouting from the distance draws nearer. This man is being hunted, and seems desperately afraid.

But the creepy atmosphere is almost completely ruined by the mildly comical figure of Paul Whitsun-Jones striding out of the fog dressed in typical Nazi-esque black uniform and jackboots and spouting dialogue like he's in The Tomorrow People. The direction by Christopher Barry can't be faulted, but the ripe performance from Whitsun-Jones undermines it all. When they find their quarry's body, it is mutated with a bony spine, but the gruesomeness of this is erased by the emergence of two more stilted performances, from Christopher Coll as Stubbs and Rick James as Cotton.